chrismon

Meaning

Noun

• A Christogram.
• A stylised siglum or character interpreted as an invocation of Christ in Merovingian and Carolingian documents.
• A Christmas decoration with explicitly Christian religious symbolism.

Origin

• From Medieval Latin crismon (New Latin chrismus, chrismum, chrismos), of uncertain origin.George Henry Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers, The riddle of the 'Labarum' and the origin of Christian symbols, Allen & Unwin, 1966, p. 28;
• "I can find no roots, etymology or grounds for the adoption of the word adopted by some Christans, 'Chrismon' , which is supposed to mean the 'Monogram of Christ', and which appears in some dictionaries (i.e. Funk and Wagnalis, 1922)."
• In the 18th century adopted in German as Chrismon or Chrismum, plural Chrismen. English in the 19th century.
• The word was revived for a type of Christmas decoration in the mid 20th century, now with a popular etymology of its being a portmanteau of Christus + monogram.so in
• The Lutheran Witness, Volume 83 (1964), p. 548 "the Chrismon (from CHRISt-MONogram) tree", and in James Edgar, Ellen Edgar, A Chrismon Service (1981), p. 2.